The present invention relates to workflow management and distribution processes systems and particularly to the protection of the computer resources used in executing and carrying out the various workflow activities assigned to the participants or operators in the overall process.
The 1990""s have been marked by a technological revolution driven by the convergence of the data processing industry with the consumer electronics industry. The effect has, in turn, driven technologies which have been known and available but relatively quiescent over the years. A major one of these technologies is the Internet or World Wide Web (Web) related distribution of documents, programs, media and all other data processing entities. The convergence of the electronic entertainment and consumer industries with data processing exponentially accelerated the demand for wide ranging communication distribution channels and the Web or Internet, which had quietly existed for over a generation as a loose academic and government data distribution facility, reached xe2x80x9ccritical massxe2x80x9d and commenced a period of phenomenal expansion.
As a result of this expansion, extraordinary worldwide communication channels and resources have become available to businesses, and this has commenced an era which should forever change how business processes are conducted.
The era is marked by what may be referred to as xe2x80x9cvirtual enterprisesxe2x80x9d, i.e. businesses relying on workflow distribution processes to conduct their business. Conventionally, business processes have been carried out completely within the limits of a company. The processes begin and are completed within the company boundaries. External requests came into the company as faxes, phone calls, postal mail and even electronic mail. These requests are then forwarded to appropriate personnel who initiate the internal process to handle the request. When the appropriate business processes are completed, the final actions are taken, such as shipping the goods out of the company, followed by appropriate phone calls, mail or faxes from the shipping company. Status inquiries were handled by internal people.
However, globalization has driven businesses away from these more leisurely methods of doing business. Now, with the Internet and like wide area networks, the business processes of customers and suppliers routinely interact with a minimum of human intervention. These interactions may range from simple inquiries to complex interactions between companies to situations where organizational units of different companies are related by sharing data and business processes so that they operate like independent or virtual enterprises. The companies no longer have to use phone calls or mail orders to do business with each other. Through the use of networks such as the Internet, business processes of different companies handle each others"" requests without any manual intervention; no interaction is required to a have one business process talk to another business process of a different company.
However, this collaboration between different organizations and companies requires the sharing of resources such as business processes and databases. Basically, the interaction between two or more businesses may be reduced to a business process where each activity in the process is performed by a participating company. Each participating company has to make available to one or more of the others, the databases and other resources which the others may need to complete their activity. In present practice, the Internet or like network provides the communication backbone for running the processes and accessing the databases and other resources.
These collaborative processes are computer controlled and are called workflow processes or workflow distribution processes. For the present state of the workflow distribution art, reference may be made to the text, Production Workflow. Concepts and Techniques, Frank Leymann et al., published 2000, Prentice Hall, N.J.
While workflow distribution processes have been very successful in accelerating the business processes and production, the sharing of data, business processes and other resources between participants, which are likely to be different companies, has presented extensive proprietary data and resource security problems. Many of the participants cooperating on one workflow process are likely to either be competitors or associated with competitors in many other business areas.
Consequently, there is a continuing need in the field of workflow distribution processes for systems and methods for limiting access of workflow process participants to resources which are proprietary to other participants. In addition, because the activities to be carried out are often distributed to a wide variety of people of different business and technical backgrounds, and perhaps nationalities, the access limitations must be presented to the users or activity operators through an easy user-intuitive interface.
The present invention provides a method and system for limiting access to resources to each of a plurality of operators having assigned activities in an overall workflow distribution, to computer resources needed to respectively complete each activity through a computer controlled interactive display interface which is easy to use and intuitive yet minimizes the risk of loss of resources which are proprietary to the provider of the resource.
In a workflow distribution process with a plurality of users or participants, which we will refer to as operators at a plurality of computer controlled display stations, there is provided at the workflow management source, means for respectively assigning activities to each of a plurality of operators and means for designating for each of said activities at least one computer resource necessary to respectively complete each of said activities.
Then, there is displayed to each of the operators at their respective display stations, a set of elements, each representing a designated computer resource accessible to said operator to carry out said assigned activity. In order that the operator does not have access to the resources designated to complete an assigned activity for any time beyond the completion of the activity, there is provided means for determining the completion of each of said assigned activities, and means responsive to this determining means for removing from the display the elements representing the designated computer resources for each respective activity responsive to a determination that said respective activity is completed.
In addition, there may be provided to each of said operators access to a plurality of basic computer resources without limitation to any assigned activity so that the present computer resources made accessible to operators for carrying out said assigned activities boost the basic resources already provided to the respective operators. This basic set of resources is available to the operator irrespective of any assigned activities, and is displayed as a basic set of elements each representing a basic computer resource selectively accessible by said operator. If in executing his assigned activity, the operator finds that he needs access to an additional resource, he may, through his display interface, request access to an additional computer resource prior to the completion of an assigned activity. Means are provided for designating such additional access by adding an element representative of said additional resource to the designated set of elements.